The boiler room is increasingly playing a role when buying a house. The condition and necessary renewal of the devices are taken into account in price negotiations. If one day an older gas heater or oil heater is to be replaced by a more environmentally friendly heat pump, expenses must be budgeted for. Prospective buyers should take this into account when making their bid and make appropriate reserves. The operating costs for heating with natural gas and oil are likely to increase because the CO₂ costs for this increase, or the gas network fees or the energy source itself. Higher additional costs or investments can reduce the purchase price.
That's the theory, but how does the influence of heating show up in practice? Are sellers asking for more money for a property with a heat pump? Ultimately, other factors influence a house price, primarily the location and the resulting demand.
As a rule, environmentally friendly heaters are worth a premium on the price of the house. In Frankfurt, the asking prices for apartments, single-family homes and two-family homes have recently risen sharply when the energy sources include solar, air heat, water heat and geothermal heat (such as an air-water heat pump). In the first quarter of this year, prices for these renewable heating systems rose by an average of 6.6 percent to 7,461 euros per square meter within one year.
With district heating/electricity, however, there was a decline of 2.8 percent to 7,477 euros, with gas/natural gas by 0.4 percent to 5,923 euros and with oil also by 0.4 percent to 4,734 euros. Apartments and houses with oil heating were offered in Frankfurt for an average of 4,734 euros per square meter. There is a clear price difference here: a gas heater results in a discount of a fifth and an oil heater a discount of a third compared to the heat pump and also district heating. The picture is similar in the neighboring cities of Wiesbaden, Offenbach, Darmstadt and Mainz according to the evaluation by the brokerage company Von Poll Immobilien, which was reported to the F.A.Z. available in advance for the Frankfurt metropolitan region (see graphic).
For Daniel Ritter, managing partner of the company, the type of heating is now a component of the overall evaluation for many prospective buyers. “Especially with similar properties, it can be the deciding factor – but the decisive factor is always how it interacts with the location, furnishings, condition and level of modernization,” he says. The focus is on the future: “Buyers today are questioning much more what follow-up costs a property will entail in the long term.”
Exceptions prove the rule. In the Main-Taunus district and the Groß-Gerau district, the asking price for apartments and houses with gas heating rose by an average of three to four percent, significantly more than for other types of heating. But here too, the property price with a heat pump is higher than with gas heating or oil heating. The evaluation of the broker network is based on the average asking prices for condominiums, single-family homes and two-family homes in the respective region from the service provider Geomap. The actual purchase prices often differ from the offered prices on internet portals, but are therefore only available later. Offer prices also do not include all real estate transactions.
The type of heating can also be a sign of the state of modernization of the building and thus justify a surcharge or discount. Specifically: If you have a heat pump in front of your house, you may have renovated the building's energy efficiency before installing it, such as insulating the walls or replacing the windows. If, on the other hand, an older oil heater provides heat in the house, the owner could have left the condition of the building largely unchanged over the past 20 years. One would increase property value, the other would not.
In new residential buildings, heat pumps have replaced gas heating as the primary heating energy for eight years. Last year, their share was 74 percent of completed residential buildings, especially in single-family homes and two-family homes. In terms of overall sales, however, gas heating was still ahead for a long time. Only last year, sales of heat pumps at 299,000 units overtook sales of gas heaters at 276,500 units, also because heating installations have declined significantly.
The federal government recently cut subsidies for the installation of a heat pump. In the next few years, payments from the state development bank KfW are expected to continue to fall. Owners must initially expect expenses to modernize the property. Claudia Breforth, branch manager of the broker network in Dreieich in the Offenbach district, observes that energetically modernized properties with modern heating technology are in significantly greater demand and are selling faster. “For many prospective buyers today, the costs of energy-saving renovation are the deciding factor,” she says. “Since modernization measures have become significantly more expensive, corresponding investments are calculated very precisely.”
In the past, hardly anyone was interested in the energy certificate, but today it is part of the preparation process for most interested parties. In her region, properties in need of renovation can often only be marketed based on price: “In some cases, we even observe that buyers prefer an energy-efficient property in an average location over a house in a better location that requires renovation.”
In Groß-Gerau, the branch manager there, Eric Preu, sees that the general state of modernization of the building is more important than the type of heating. “Modern windows, a renewed roof or modern sanitary areas are often valued more highly than the question of whether a heat pump is already installed,” he says. A good property in an attractive location will still find a buyer even with gas heating.
The only question that remains is at what price the house with gas heating will then be sold. The prices quoted for properties with heat pumps are not only higher in Frankfurt regions. In other larger cities, the asking prices for apartments, single-family homes and two-family homes with renewable heating systems such as solar or air heat, water heat and geothermal heat rose in the first quarter (see graphic). In Berlin there was an average increase of 10.4 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year to 6,559 euros per square meter, in Düsseldorf by 9.2 percent to 7,311 euros and in Hamburg by 4.8 percent to 6,569 euros. The increase was smaller in Cologne with 1.5 percent to 6,771 euros per square meter, in Leipzig with 1.2 percent to 7,625 euros, in Munich with 0.9 percent to 10,091 euros and in Stuttgart with 0.4 percent to 4,800 euros.
Compared to large cities, the asking prices for residential properties with oil heating are significantly lower, usually between 4,000 and 5,000 euros per square meter. With a gas heater the price increases slightly and comes to 5,000 to 6,000 euros in Frankfurt, Berlin and Hamburg. In some cases, as in Düsseldorf, price increases can also be seen. In Stuttgart, the price with gas heating rose by 2.4 percent to 2,955 euros and with oil heating by 2.3 percent to 2,966 euros.
The outlier is Munich with the asking price of 8,219 euros (plus 0.2 percent) for a property with gas heating and 7,587 euros (minus 2.1 percent) for a property with oil heating. Volker Stich, the owner of the broker network there, sees a clearly higher willingness to buy properties with sustainable heating technology. Well-renovated properties or those with modern building technology are sold faster and at significantly better prices. “Heat pumps or district heating are real selling points at first glance,” he says.
In Cologne we hear that, especially in the area on the right bank of the Rhine, with many houses from the 1960s and 1970s, energy-maintained houses are sold more quickly. Apartments or houses with heat pumps or district heating connections appeal to a wider range of buyers. Especially in cities, there are differences in the asking price of more than 1000 euros between a property with oil heating and a property with a heat pump. For such an increase in value, replacing the heating system would often be worthwhile.
The trends are similar in Hamburg, Berlin and their surrounding areas. In some cases, the asking prices in the case of a district heating connection are higher than for the property with a heat pump, as is the case on average in the Hanseatic city of Hamburg.
In the districts around the federal capital, the asking prices for houses with oil heating have recently fallen. Martina Paasch, office owner of the broker network in Bad Saarow in the Oder-Spree district of Brandenburg, sees the shortage of craftsmen in some regions as an additional point. Qualified companies are difficult to find in a timely manner. This is also why their customers pay attention to the energy costs and follow-up costs of an energy modernization.
